If President Donald Trump is confirmed to have pressed his Ukrainian counterpart Vladimir Zelinski to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden, he should be held accountable. Controversial.
"If the president is withholding military aid while at the same time pressuring a foreign leader to do something illegal to contaminate his rival during an election campaign, that may be the only remedy equivalent to the evil of this act," Schiff said, arguing that Trump's accountability would be the choice. Only raised.
Schiff told CNN two months ago that the only way for Trump to leave power was to lose the election, encouraging Democrats to ensure voters cast their ballots in the 2020 election, but his latest statement signaled a change in attitude.
"When a president talks to the president of another country, he has to be able to talk to these people, and they don't want to know that the call is being recorded," Trump told reporters.
"We cannot do that with another head of state, however, our conversation was good, very frank and very transparent. I hope they can publish it."
He also said he had a "wonderful" contact with Zelinski and that there was no problem for his private lawyer, Rudolf Giuliani, to testify before Congress, stressing that he was not seeking to harm Biden, "but he has done a very dishonest act."
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, for his part, called for an investigation into Biden, who is running for the White House, if he proves to have interfered inappropriately to protect his son from an investigation in Ukraine.
| Trump: Biden has done a completely dishonest job (Reuters) |
Calls for accountability
Lawmakers called on the Democratic leadership to begin holding Trump accountable immediately, but House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the Democratic leader in the House refused to formally begin the accountability process and demanded that the Trump administration disclose the truth.
Democratic Senator Chris Murphy told NBC that Congress needed to hear the testimony of an intelligence agent who had filed a complaint about the call anonymously, adding that if the charge was confirmed, the president should be held accountable.
US media reported that Trump encouraged Zelinsky during a telephone call to investigate the activities of Biden, who worked for a gas company in Ukraine when his father was Vice President Barack Obama.
Biden on Friday asked Trump to release the text of the phone call, stressing that he had never spoken to his son about his professional activities abroad.
"I know what happened in the conversation and I think there was no pressure," Ukrainian Foreign Minister Vadim Pristiku said in an interview on Monday. "The conversation was long and friendly.
The Ukrainian official stressed that Zelinsky has the right to keep the confidentiality of talks with other leaders, noting that Ukraine is "an independent state and has its secrets."